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Spooky reads for spooky season
For the creepiest of carry-ons.
Short on time? Let us summarise this guide for you.
From jungle horrors to haunted hotels, this curated list of terrifying reads spans centuries, continents, and subgenres. The Ruins delivers jungle terror in Mexico, while The Watchers and The Ritual bring woodland horror to Ireland and Sweden. The Axeman's Jazz dives into real-life murder mystery in 1919 New Orleans, and Funland offers brutal 1980s slasher vibes in a creepy theme park. For fans of classic Gothic, The Monk and The Little Stranger revisit sinister mansions and unreliable narrators. The Hotel explores feminist horror in the Fens, and The Terror reimagines Arctic survival with a supernatural twist. Each title promises atmospheric dread, monstrous forces, and the perfect excuse to sleep with the light on.
These nine horror books deliver full-body chills in destinations you won't forget – from cursed ruins to haunted hotels and frozen wastelands. Whether you love Gothic suspense, creature features, or psychological dread, there's something here to keep you up all night – we wouldn't blame you if you left the light on after you finished reading.
The Ruins by Scott Smith
What do you get when you combine spring break in the sweltering jungle of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula with an oppressive, crumbling Mayan temple and some very angry locals? Absolute, unrelenting terror, that's what.
When a group of tourists find themselves stranded on the titular ruins, unable to leave or call for help, they quickly learn there's something else there with them. Shocking gore, group conflict and a fight for survival all build up to a tightly paced descent into sheer dread – the only upside of putting it down is the reprieve you get from the sheer horror of it all.
The Watchers by A. M. Shine
Ireland's ancient woodland is the setting for A. M. Shine's debut novel. The modern Gothic vibes, grey, almost sterile forest and masterful weaving of Irish folklore will give you such a chill that you can almost see your own breath as you turn the pages.
The story centres around a group of four strangers and one bird, trapped in a bunker and stalked every night by grotesque creatures. The only safety lies in staying in the light – whether it's the dim grey glow of the eerie woods, or the harsh, cold glare of the bunker.
The Ritual by Adam Nevill
A lads lads lads holiday goes wrong. Very wrong. In an attempt to invigorate their weakening friendships on a hiking trip in Sweden, this unfortunate quartet instead find their relationships tested to the limit when the isolated wilderness decides to claim them for itself.
Adam Nevill mines Sweden's mythical heritage for the ultimate chilling folk horror – it's Midsommar meets Blair Witch meets creature feature with a central mystery that will keep you hooked throughout.
The Axeman's Jazz by Ray Celestin
New Orleans. 1919. Jazz. The Mob. Local legends. That sultry Louisiana heat. This mind-boggling thriller is made even weirder by the fact that it was inspired by the true story of the Axeman of New Orleans. This real-life serial killer was never identified and during his reign of terror swore to 'all the devils in the nether regions that every person shall be spared in whose home a jazz band is in full swing'. So basically, play some jazz or get the axe.
The book exploits the mystery surrounding these events to fictitiously fill in the gaps, as the police, mafia and the Pinkerton detective agency race to unmask the killer. With an appearance from Louis Armstrong for good measure.
Funland by Richard Laymon
If the monster hair, fuzzy sweatshirts and shoulder pads of the 1980s weren't scary enough, transplant it all into a rundown theme park, add a gang of violent teenagers, an unseen, predatory horror, and a clutch of mysterious disappearances and you've got Funland. Probably a bit of a misnomer, unless getting tortured under the beams of a California boardwalk is your idea of a good time.
It's got all the tropes of a classic 1980s slasher – a central group of teens, the closed environment of the theme park, and loads of gruesome kills. Add in gang violence and some over-the-top, pulpy brutality and you've a proper bloody mess. This one's definitely not entry-level horror.
The Monk by Matthew Lewis
A pioneer of the Gothic genre, The Monk walked so Dracula could run – it was shocking when it came out in 1796, and still unsettles today.
The moody stone halls of 18th-century Madrid's churches, monasteries and dungeons provide the setting for this descent into deepest, darkest evil, through the lens of Georgian sensibilities. It follows pious monk Ambrosio and how his temptations take him down a spiral of sin.
The Hotel by Daisy Johnson
This elegant collection of short stories swaps the cliche haunted house with a haunted hotel on the Fens, whose marshy, swampy wetlands create a rich atmosphere that seeps from the pages.
The hotel itself is the connective tissue that links all these stories together as different women from different periods of time find themselves drawn to, or trying to escape from, its dank halls. And it's these characters that give voices to the often silenced or overlooked women in traditional Gothic literature, often relegated to victims, objects of lust or distressed damsels. This is Gothic horror at its most modern, and it's not sorry about it.
The Terror by Dan Simmons
In 1845 the Franklin Expedition to the Arctic saw its two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror (yes it was actually called that – I mean, what did they expect?), get stuck in the sea ice. Faced with dwindling supplies, sub-zero temperatures and probably lots of scurvy, not a single member of the crew survived. To this date we still don't have the full story.
Enter Dan Simmons' 2007 account – a 'what-if' scenario that adds an element of the supernatural to what's already a harrowing fight for survival in one of the world's most unforgiving climates.
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Creepy little ghost children and big, decaying manor houses in the middle of the English countryside are cliches for a reason. And Sarah Waters tackles them masterfully in this subversive take on the traditional haunted house tale.
This is more than a run-of-the-mill ghost story, with unreliable narration that means you can't quite trust anything you're being told. Is it really a ghost, or is there a rational explanation? A lot of it is open to interpretation, but let's just say the odd happenings at Hundreds Hall are far more than they seem.
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